The Power of The Margin

Story Time! Soo….Once upon a time (2 weeks ago) I was planning on traveling for a wedding and ordered my dress less than 2 weeks from when I was scheduled to leave. My dress was supposed to come in 2 days before I left but ended up coming in the day before. When I opened my package I saw a dress that might as well have been white and not the light pink I had seen on the website. I know not everyone cares about others wearing white at their wedding but I was not about to be that person! So I planned to go to the mall and buy a dress that evening. Which was a great plan, except I had planned to pack during that time.

Your girl was exhausted because she ended up working a few late nights the week leading up to her departure. (I switch between referring to myself in 3rd person and acting normal so just stick with the story and you’ll get it 😊). So here I was on Friday afternoon, tired and dressless. I went to the mall after work and yess, your girl found a dress! It ended up being even nicer than my original (also more expensive). Here’s a pic at the wedding!

My family reunion also happened to be in Atlanta (my city of residence) that weekend, so I went to the reunion after the mall. I had planned to stay there for an hour, and then go home and pack. Instead, I ended up staying for a quite a few hours since it was my only night (the reunion was 3 days, but I was traveling the next day). I had so much fun catching up with my family!

It was after midnight when I finally got home and started packing. I completed a few other tasks as well. An already exhausted Adebosoye, got into bed with plans to wake up 2 hours later to catch her flight. Let me tell y’all (yes, I’m so southern now 😊)! When that alarm went off I struggled-d-d to get up! I eventually got up and quickly realized I had grossly underestimated the amount of time it would take to get ready. I ended up leaving an hour after I planned and got to the airport about 55 mins before takeoff.

I needed to check in a bag, but I didn’t realize that check-in closed an hour before takeoff! I was flying to Toronto, so it was an international flight, hence them closing check-in an hour before. I was so frustrated with myself! If I would’ve left the house even 5 mins earlier, I would’ve made it. The annoying thing was I had plans to attend an event that evening. Toronto was a stop before I went to the wedding, and it was 1 night to see a group of friends and family I hadn’t seen in a while. I was furious with myself. Furious (repeated for dramatic effect 😉). Fortunately, I was able to get booked on an evening flight, but it caused me to miss the bulk of the event.

On my way home from the airport (I went home before my flight), I said to myself the devil is really trying me on this trip. I was forced to quickly check myself (really the Holy Spirit checked me) and said no darling (paraphrasing). You tried yourself (ouch). If you would’ve ordered your dress sooner you could’ve gotten a replacement dress sooner. If you would’ve gotten your work done earlier, you wouldn’t have had to stay up and have been so exhausted all week. If you would’ve started packing earlier in the week you’ve wouldn’t have had to stay up packing. If you would have left the house sooner you wouldn’t have missed your flight.

I tried to blame the devil for the mistakes I made. How many times do we do that? It can be very dangerous to blame every bad thing that happens on the devil because we might fail to look at the situation, evaluate our decisions, and see how we can correct them for the future. As I sat on my flight that evening, I reflected. I decided I must do better. Hence the commencement of this post. That fateful day taught me the power of the margin.

Margin definition: An amount of something included so as to be sure of success or safety.

It’s a simple lesson that we all know in theory but don’t all practice.

Building in margin in all areas of our lives can save us unnecessary pain. In my case it was time. In your case, it may be time as well, money or something else. Whatever it is, I hope you join me (if you need too) in committing to living life with more margin involved. But like I always say, it’s a process. I won’t beat myself up if I don’t change overnight, but I will make a conscious effort to create more margin in my life.

P.S I wrote the first draft of this on my evening flight to Toronto. You can mess up and still make the most of your makeups! But that’s a story for another day 😊

The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty. Proverbs 21:5 NKJV

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish itLuke 14: 28 NKJV